Aren’t we all so very lucky to be having the European Union looking after parts of our foreign policy? As you know, trade and trade relations are now an exclusive Brussels compotence, the national governments having nothing to do with it. Sanctions are dropped against Cuba:

But one of the dissident leaders who met the
commissioner, Marta Beatriz Roque, the economist, said the encounter
was window-dressing by the Castro regime, which continued to repress
democratic activists. She also "respectfully disagreed" with an EU
decision to suspend diplomatic sanctions on Cuba, and to seek closer
ties.

"The government is not going to change.
Castro is deaf. Sanctions have a political value because they
demonstrate to the whole world that Castro is a human rights abuser.
The EU should not be seeking deeper relations with a totalitarian
regime," she said. "The fact that we could meet Mr Michel one day, for
an hour, is an isolated phenomenon.

The Cuban
government allowed it to take place so the EU would see what the
authorities wanted them to see. I don’t understand how Mr Michel, who
is an intelligent person, can think that he understands Cuba in the
short time that he was here."

Mr Michel’s visit
was intended to herald a fresh start for friendly relations between
Cuba and Europe, following the EU’s recent decision – under heavy
pressure from the socialist government in Spain – to suspend diplomatic
sanctions imposed on Havana in 2003.

Lovely eh?